The book of Revelation chapter
21. Revelation chapter 21. This is
the last book in the Bible. It is the revelation of, it is
the manifestation of, the uncovering of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here we find the Son of God exalted,
this One who redeemed us by His blood, this One in whom God accepts
us. John begins the book by telling
us that Christ is to be found among His people. That's exactly
where he saw Him. That which we want today is we
want the presence of Christ Jesus. Where will you find him? Well, you'll find him on his
throne. He got there by way of a bloody
death. That's the reward for his sufferings. The reward for doing the work
that God gave him to do to save his people from their sins. Thank
God salvation was finished at the cross. Redemption was finished. Our Lord said with his own dying
breath, and yet not in weakness, but he said, it is finished.
It is finished. Everything that God demanded,
everything that we needed, our Lord Jesus has finished by His
death upon the cross of Calvary. That's why the Bible says we're
accepted in the Beloved. It doesn't say we're made acceptable. The Bible doesn't talk about
Calvary being a possibility of maybe we'll now be saved, but
it was a finished work. And our Lord Jesus, since he
did that which God sent him to do, what did God send him to
do? Well, his name says it all. The angel said, thou shalt call
his name Jesus. And here's the reason. He shall
save his people from their sins. How did he do that? He did that
by dying instead in the room of his people. God demanded satisfaction to
His justice. We're a bunch of sinful people.
And God's law demands death for sin. That's why Christ died. He died to save His people. And
in His death, He did save His people. He didn't make salvation
a possibility. He did save us. We find out about
it when the Spirit of God does the work within us, bringing
us to trust Christ Jesus. And as a result of doing this
work, he's in glory. He's at the right hand of God.
He's the sovereign. You know what the word sovereign
means. The root word is reign. He reigns. There is one who reigns over
all, over everything, over everybody, over every circumstance, over
every event. Nothing can ever happen apart
from His will. And the one who reigns is our
King, the Lord Jesus Christ. Where are you gonna find Christ
Jesus? You'll find Him on His throne.
He's not groveling in the dust, begging somebody to let Him do
something or other. He's the King. He reigns. Where are you going to find Christ
Jesus? In His Word. You say, Preacher, I have an
interest in Christ Jesus. I want to know more about Him.
I want to know who He is. I want to know what He did. I
want to know the reason He did it. I want to know where He is
now. Read the Word of God. Read the Scriptures. As we gather
together, three times on the Lord's Day
and once on Wednesday, we open up the Scriptures. That's what
we open up. We begin the service by reading
from the Word of God. Our brother read to us a portion
of the Word of God from John chapter 1. I'm going to be preaching
from the Word of God. Where are you going to find Christ
Jesus? Where? You'll find Him in this
book. And if God the Spirit would give
you eyes to see Him, He's everywhere in the book. He's the life of
the book. He's the soul of the book. He is the very heart of the book
of God. And when we read the Scriptures,
we do ourselves a disservice. And we rob Christ Jesus of the
glory that is due Him if we're not looking for Him. This is not a science book. It's
not a history book. It's not a book to tell you about
the Jewish nation. This is a book about Christ Jesus
and Him crucified. This is where we're going to
find Him. And when you read the Word of God, and some of you
read the Scriptures daily, and I commend you for that, that's
a very wise thing to do. But as you read the scriptures,
ask the Spirit of God, oh God, give me eyes and give me grace
to see Christ Jesus in the scriptures. Where are we gonna find him?
We'll find him in glory, we'll find him on his throne, we'll
find him in his word. I tell you where else we'll find
him, wherever the gospel's being preached. That's where you'll
find him. Wherever men brag on him and
magnify him, men who make their boast in the Lord, that's where
he'll be found. Men who lift him up and who in
lifting him up, put themselves down. John the Baptist, he speaks
for all of the preachers of the gospel, and he says, he must
increase. He said, I must decrease. I'm
going to tell you something, that's not only true of every
preacher of the gospel, that's true of you too. He must increase
in your mind and in your heart. As you see who He is, as He's
identified in the Word of God, you magnify Him, you exalt Him,
you worship Him, you stand in awe before Him. Listen, He's
the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He's not a baby anymore. He's
not somebody who's helpless. He's the sovereign, He has all
authority. He said, all power has been given
to me in heaven and in earth. That's why He told His disciples,
go out and preach the gospel. We're not here to feel sorry
for Jesus. We're not here to bring your
thoughts down concerning Him. Our thoughts of Him are far too
low anyway. Oh God, magnify, magnify the
Lord Jesus Christ in my heart. Let me see Him who He is in reality
as I read the Word of God. This is why every time we gather
together, we are magnifying the name of Christ Jesus and the
work that He did. And make sure you understand
that. We magnify the Savior and the work which He did. The message is not, we preach
Christ, period. The message is, we preach Christ
crucified. There's got to be the message
of substitution. He died for somebody. He died
for all of the people God gave Him in covenant grace before
the world began. He died in our stead, in the
stead of His people, and He made satisfaction to the justice of
God for those people by enduring the wrath of God in His own body,
in His own soul. As all of the sins of all of
God's elect of all of the ages were charged to Him. That vast
indebtedness that we owe to God, He took it upon Himself to pay
it in full. And He did pay it. He rendered
to God that which God demanded. Death. You say, how could the
death of one man avail to the salvation of millions of people? Well, it's because of who that
man was. He's the God-man. And He's the
subject of our preaching. He's the reason we exist. This
church has been standing for many years. And the message has
always been consistent of exalting the Son of God who loved us and
gave Himself for us. That's been the message. I'm
talking to some of you who are charter members. And you know
right from the beginning, right from the get-go, when you began
to meet, this was the message. We're talking about a person
and the work that person has already accomplished. And down
through the years, the message has been maintained. It's the
same. Different face behind the pulpit,
same message. And I'll tell you this. wherever
God's people meet and wherever God has a servant, he's preaching
this message. I'm very careful to say this.
I won't say God's servants ought to preach the gospel. That's not right. God's servants
do preach the gospel. We do exalt Christ Jesus. We
identify him from the scriptures. We give you the reason he had
to die. That God might be just and justify
the ungodly. We identify those in whose stead
he died. Sinners. Sinners. The Savior said, I came not to
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And if I could
find a sinner, I'd give him some good news. The hymn writer said,
a sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so. There are lots of people who
are willing to say, well, I've made some mistakes. I know I'm
not perfect. You know, along life's way, I've
done some things I ought not to have done. Listen, the Scripture
describes us as being undone and lost and filthy and rotten. Isaiah says from the very top
of our heads to the bottom of our feet, there's no soundness
in us. but wounds and bruises and putrefying
sores, and you say, but preacher, I try to live right, I try to
do right, and I'm sure you do. But that doesn't impress God. You see, God says, be ye holy,
because I'm holy. The standard for acceptance with
God, listen, is absolute righteousness. If you be righteous in Christ
Jesus, or you hear this preacher, you're going to perish. You will
perish, notwithstanding the good you've tried to do. Tried to
be a good husband, tried to be a good wife, good mother, father,
son, or daughter. Notwithstanding all that, Unless
you're righteous, unless you're righteous, you're
going to die in your sins. And Christ said, if you die in
your sin, He said, where I am, you can't come. And I'll tell you, if you've
got a brain in your head, if God gives you any kind of
interest at all, you ought to be asking yourself now, if you
don't know the answer already, How can I be accepted by such
a holy God? You know, the Bible says God,
He charges His angels with folly. Angels? And it said the heavens
aren't impure in His sight. What about us? We drink iniquity
like water. I was telling the Sunday school
class this morning, we were talking about the sinfulness of man.
Augustus Toplady. He tried to calculate the number
of sins that a man 80 years old had committed. And this is what
Toplady said. He said, I estimate we sin at
least once every second. Once every second. Of every minute. Of every hour. of every day,
of every week, of every month, of every year. That's a lot of
sins. And somebody's going to have
to answer for them. Either a suitable substitute
has already answered for them, or you. Where are you gonna find Christ
Jesus? You'll find Him on His throne, find Him in the Word,
you'll find Him in a true preacher's message. And I give you this word of caution.
If you watch on TV or listen on the radio to some preacher
and his message is not consistent with the Christ of the Scriptures, Not a Christ who needs you, but the Christ that you need. If his message is not Christ
is the king, Christ is the sovereign. Christ is the successful one
because he actually saved his people by his death. He's the
sovereign over all. He's not wishing and wanting
and desiring people to do this, that, or something else. He has
His sovereign will that He made before the world ever began,
and everything is following exactly that which He ordained to do.
If that's not the Christ that's being preached where you go or
where you listen to, boy, you better get out. You better get
out. Preacher, I thought all religions
were good. Well, see, you can be wrong then,
can't you? See, you're wrong on that. There
are not many roads to heaven. There are not many roads to God.
If the Bible says anything, it says there's one way. And it's
a narrow way and few there be that find it. Our Lord Jesus
spoke to His disciples and He said, I am the way, I am the
truth, I am the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. You come any other way, there will be no acceptance for
you. But you come by Christ and Him
crucified. You'll find the doors of mercy
are wide open. Because the Lord is drawing you
in already. He's pulling you in. Where are
we going to find Christ? We'll find Him on His throne.
We'll find Him in His Word. We'll find Him through the preaching
of the Gospel. And we'll find Him meeting with
His people. He says, where two or three gather
together, that's where I'll be. That is, gathered together in
His name. And He's wherever one of His
children is. He said to His disciples, He
looked at them and said, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake
you. Isn't that good news? Doesn't
that help you? I'll never leave you. Your mother
may forsake you. Your father may forsake you.
Your family may turn their backs on you. Your friends may say,
I don't have any more use for you. But the Lord of glory says,
I will never leave you. And I'll never forsake you. That
we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. Oh, what a helper
in time of need. This is the Christ that we preach. And he'll be found among his
people. And you know, he reveals himself
to us in this way, so often in the scriptures. He reveals himself
as the Lamb. The Lamb. Look at the last verse
of Revelation chapter 21. The last verse of Revelation
chapter 21, and there shall in no wise enter into it anything
that defile it, into this city, into this city of God, into this city that has foundations,
into this city that has a wall around it, a wall around it,
great and high, It's the wall of God's salvation. There shall
in no wise enter into that city anything that defileth, neither
whatsoever worketh abomination or a lie. Folks who lie about
the gospel, folks who lie about God, they're not going in. They're
not going in. So I think you ought to call
all of these preachers your brethren. No. No, no. If they make a lie... Did you
know this? Let me just make it real simple
for you. Every preacher is either telling
the truth today, or he's telling a lie. Is that right? I'm either
being very truthful with you based on the Scriptures now,
because the Scriptures is all that matters. So I'm either telling you the
truth or I'm telling you a lie. And that's so of every preacher.
That's why we must be wise and take the Word of God and be like
the Bereans. You know, they heard the great
Apostle preach, the Apostle Paul. And they took the Scriptures,
they searched the Scriptures daily to see if these things
are so. Get your Bible out. Prove me
wrong if you can. That's right, take the Scripture,
take it in its context. Read one of the little articles
I put in there this morning by Myles Coverdale. Read there. There's a right way to interpret
Scripture, to understand Scripture. If you can prove me wrong, bring
me your Bible and show me. Because I don't want to be wrong.
I don't want to be wrong. If I'm wrong about this gospel,
if I'm wrong about it being by grace alone, if I'm wrong about
it being by Christ alone, if I'm wrong about His blood alone,
if I'm wrong about His righteousness alone, please come and show me. I don't want to wind up in hell.
But you can't prove me wrong. As fellows said, I double-dog
dare you to get in the Scriptures, study the Word of God. And this
is what you'll find. Salvation is of the Lord. It's of the Lord from beginning
to end and everywhere in the middle. Salvations of Him in
His purpose, and in His purchase, and in His power, and in His
preservation, and in His perfection. He's the Alpha and He's the Omega
of all things, and He's the Alpha and the Omega of salvation too. Get in the Scriptures. Nobody's going to enter in who
maketh or loveth or believeth a lie. But preacher, they mean
well. I'm sure a lot of people do.
But they're so sincere. Probably so. I tell you what, when Saul of
Tarsus, he saw those men stoning, getting ready to stone Stephen,
he said, here, let me hold your coats for you. so you can get
a better aim at that old man's head. I don't want to hear his
preaching either. I'd call that sincerity, wouldn't
you? When he goes to Damascus and
he's got papers in his hands from the high priest authorizing
him to arrest anybody, man, woman, or child, who believed in salvation
by the way, The way of grace. The way of Christ crucified.
When he went forth to arrest anybody who believed in the way,
and he did it, and he held them in the prison. I'd call that
sincerity, wouldn't you? I'd call that somebody who means
business. But he was wrong. He was wrong. And he talks about that. And
he says to Timothy, I did it ignorantly. I didn't know. I
didn't know. And it's a wonderful step when
God the Spirit brings us to see, I don't know. Be like the Ethiopian
eunuch. I need somebody to guide me.
I need somebody to tell me the
truth. That's one group of people. They're
not gonna enter in, but here's another group of people that
will enter in. Look at the last statement of
verse 27. But they which are written in
the Lamb's book of life. The Lamb's book of life. Let me say a few words about
the Lamb this morning. Tonight I'm gonna say a few words
about his book. Because it's a book of life.
Book of life. Back in chapter 20. Go back to
chapter 20. Look at verse 11. I saw a great white throne and
Him that sat on it from whose face the earth and heaven fled
away. There was found no place for
them. And I saw the dead, small and
great, standing before God. And the books were open. And
I'm going to tell you something. Those books are the books of
death. That's what they are. They're
the books of death. Because these books are filled
with the names of people who lived and died in their own filthy
righteousness. And they're sinfulness. These
are the books of death, death. And another book was opened. I'm glad there's another book.
There's another book was opened, which is the book of life. What kind of life? Well, Every
kind of life is worth living. Spiritual life, everlasting life,
that's the length of it. Eternal life, that's the quality
of it. The life of God in the soul.
And the dead were judged out of those things which were written
in the books according to their works. and the sea gave up the
dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead
which were in them, and they were judged every man according
to their works. And death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire. This is the second death, and
whosoever was not found written in the book of life." That's
that book I'm gonna be talking about tonight. The Lamb's book
of life was cast into the lake of fire. Who is this Lamb? You know, back in Revelation
chapter 5, John... Go back there real quick. Let
me show you something. And I've talked to you about
this before, but in the right hand of God, in the right hand
of Him who sat upon the throne, there was a book sealed with
seven seals, written within and without and on the backside.
That's God's perfect purpose for all time. And it's sealed. And a boy says, who's worthy
to open up the book? And nobody was found worthy to
open up the book, to even look in it, much less execute all
the purposes of God within the book. And John said, look here
at chapter 5 verse 4, I wept much because no man was found
worthy worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look
thereon. And one of the elders, he saith unto me, weep not. Behold,
the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed. He's gotten the victory. He's
prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof.
He's the lion. Who is the lion? That's Christ
Jesus. It indicates royalty. Authority? Here's kingship? He's the one
who is conquered over every enemy of his and his people. He's royal. He's courageous. He has all dignity. He has all majesty. He's the
king. He's the king. He's the lion. That's what John heard. He heard
this voice say, a voice of one of the elders, the lion hath
prevailed. And then John looks to see him. But he doesn't see a lion. He doesn't see a lion. And I
beheld, and lo in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts,
and in the midst of the elders, stood, not a lion, and I'm sure
that's what he fully expected to see, the lion. In his fierceness,
in his courage, in his authority, in his dominion. But instead,
he sees him as a lamb. Because you see, he is both the
lion and the lamb. He's the lion who defends his
people, He's the lion who's defeated every prey. He's stooped down
and he's devoured the prey. He's devoured the enemy. He's
conquered. He's the conquering lion of the
tribe of Judah. That's the kingly tribe. But when John goes to look at
him, he sees a lamb. He sees a lamb. A lamb, now, when the Bible speaks
about us as being lambs, and we are the lambs of the Lord,
we're his little lamb, we're his sheep. Well, that indicates
foolishness, that's us. A certain level of stupidity.
We have no way to defend ourselves or protect ourselves, we're his
sheep. were his little lambs that he
gathers up in his arms. But when this speaks of our Lord
Jesus Christ, it means he's harmless, meek, gentle, tender. When he was on this earth, he
received injuries, and he gave out none. There's a loveliness about a
lamb which captures the interest of
all of us. Nothing could be more happily
chosen by our God to set forth Christ Jesus in his immaculate
holiness and purity in his meekness, his gentleness, and his patience,
as this, he is the Lamb, the Lamb of God. It is written of him, in his
mouth was found no guile, and when he reviled, he reviled not
again. When he suffered, he threatened
not. He was indeed holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. He is the Lamb of God. In Genesis chapter 4, we find
the Lamb typified in Abel's offering. He's pictured right there in
the beginning of the Bible. I told you when you read your
Bibles, and you folks know this, you're always looking for Christ
Jesus. In Genesis chapter four, there
he is. Abel took the firstlings of his
flock, and he offered a burnt offering to God. Whereas his
brother Cain, He offered that which he had produced from an
earth that was cursed. And he thought God would accept
him. He won't do it. He didn't do
it. God had respect to Abel's offering. But he didn't have any respect
to Cain's offering. You see, Abel's offering, it
pictured, it typified the Lamb of God. The Lamb of God. You get over to Genesis chapter
22, we have the Lamb of God prophesied. He's prophesied. Abraham took
Isaac up on a mountain that God would show him. God said, offer
him as a burnt offering. And there they go up on the mountain
and Abraham had laid the wood for the burnt offering on the
back of Isaac. And Abraham took the fire in
his hand and a knife. Here's a torch and a knife. And
they went both of them together. And they left two servants a
ways back. But before they left, Abraham
said, I'm the lad going yonder and worship. Y'all stay here.
We'll be back directly. And Isaac He's got the wood on
his back. You see him carrying that wood,
can't you? And he sees his dad got the torch and the knife.
And Isaac knows, he knows, because he's been well taught. You can't worship God without
the Lamb. Not back then. Not now. Not ever. He said, Father, we got everything
else we need, but where's the lamb? You said we're going to
worship. Where's the lamb? Where's the
lamb? And Abraham said, my son, God
will provide Himself a lamb. God will provide it, and God
Himself will be the lamb. Our Lord Jesus is said to be
the Lamb of God. He's the Lamb of God. In Exodus
chapter 12, we see the Lamb of God put to death and the blood
applied. God said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. This Lamb, the Lamb of God, He's
got to die because that's what justice demands. Christ had to
die. He had to die. In Isaiah 53,
we see the Lamb personified. He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet He opened not His mouth. He's brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, as a lamb to the slaughter, as a sheep before her shearers
is done, so He opened not His mouth. This is where we find
out that this lamb that's being typified and pictured from Genesis
on in Isaiah 53, we find out this lamb is somebody. He's talking
about a man, the God-man Christ Jesus. And it's only fitting
that he would be set forth as a lamb. Isaiah said, as a sheep before
her shearers, before her shearers, they shear a sheep to get the
fleece and make a garment. What about that? A garment. We've
got, you see, our righteousness is as filthy rags. That's the
garment that we wear by nature. That's got to be stripped off
of us. We've got to have a perfect garment, a garment that suits
God. That's acceptable to God. That
is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. He was shorn as a sheep. And we wear His coat. Do you
have His coat on? Are you made the righteousness
of God in Christ Jesus? You have been made the righteousness
of God in Christ Jesus by God's grace, just as having been satisfied
if, and here's the evidence of it, Christ is your only hope.
Christ and Him crucified. But it's also a beautiful picture
of him as a lamb in that he was put to death. And like in the
Passover. They ate the roasted lamb. We
feed on Christ. He said, My blood is drink indeed. My flesh is meat indeed. We feast
on Him. You see, we've gathered together
this morning to have this worship service and what it is, it's
a feast. It's a feast. We're feeding on
Christ and Him crucified. We're feeding our souls. We're
rejoicing in Him. This is our nourishment. This is what does us good. And in John 1, the passage you
read, he's identified. John saw him come and said, Behold
the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Who's he
pointing to? He's pointing to Jesus of Nazareth. He's the Lamb of God. The Lamb
of God. And right here in Revelation
chapter 5, here's the Lamb of God crucified. Because He says
He saw a lamb as it had been slain. Slain. You know what that
means? Slaughtered. Crucified. He had to die. He had to die. And by His death, He satisfied
God. That's why further down Here
in Revelation 5, watch this in verse 12. And this is exactly
what she was singing a few moments ago. John hears the voice of
multitudes say with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb that was slain
to receive, to have conferred upon Him, to obtain. Watch it. power, and riches, and wisdom,
and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. Here's the Lamb of God. And as
we get over toward the end of the book, and may I give you
one other reference, chapter 22 and verse 1. Here we have the Lamb glorified. Revelation 22 and verse 1. And he showed me a pure river
of water of life, clear as crystal. You know where it comes from?
You know where salvation comes from? You know where mercy comes
from? You know where grace comes from?
Comes from the throne of God. And of the Lamb. Comes right from his
throne. This is the Lamb glorified. Who
is this Lamb? Oh, it's our Savior. It's our Savior. None other than the Lord of glory.
That One who is altogether God and altogether man.